Saturday, February 27, 2010

A Little Bird Told Me

When I jumped out of the shower this morning, Mr. Tide informed me that we had a baby eagle in the big dead tree out back. I can see the tree from the table where I do my make-up, but by the time I was done showering he or she had flown the coop!

Now I know the correct term for a baby eagle is an eaglet or juvenile, but I still call them baby eagles! A young eagle takes 4 to 5 years to mature and their plumage is speckled brown and white so they are often mistaken for hawks. Eagles can live to be 30 years old so they have multiple offspring over their lifetime.

We are so fortunate to have some of these majestic birds in our own backyard. They don't nest on our property, that honor is held by the osprey which migrate south each winter and then return each spring. The osprey and the eagles are not friends! In fact they detest one another. So our best chance to see the eagles is in the winter, when they don't have to fight with the osprey and can perch in a big dead tree along the water's edge in our yard.

This massive tree must have been around for hundreds of years, but sadly a lightning strike caused it to die before we ever bought the house. The first year we lived here, a pair of osprey began building a nest in it, and they've added to it each year.

We rarely see the juvenile eagles, but often hear their parents calling to them to fly from the creek side to the river. So it was a treat to see the pictures Mr. Tide snapped this morning of this young, beautiful bird!

The photo at the top of the post is this baby eagle's mom or dad. I think it's the mother, because female bald eagles are larger than the males.

I love this one, because you can see the two little birds on the right hanging out with the "cool" kid on the block. If you're a bird and you're going to have friends, why not pick the biggest and baddest bird out there to be one of your homies!

The eagles never go in the osprey's nest. We don't know where these eagles nest, but it's somewhere far up river.

Even as little tykes, these birds are majestic and it's really quite humbling to be in their presence.

And speaking of birds, if you haven't noticed I'm now on Twitter! Please join in so that I can give you blow by blow details of every waking moment of my exciting life! Ok, I don't really lead a very exciting life, but it will help you to be one of the first to know when I put up new posts!

9 comments:

I love your bird post. I love watching hawks around our yard and we get the great blue heron around our pond. He loves our frogs, tadpoles and fish to munch on. It was funny when you said you call them baby birds instead of juveniles. I do the same. I was out talking to my neighbor and I said something about the baby cardinals and he quickly corrected me and said juveniles. I still say babies!!

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I am a mom to 2 wonderful children, wife to an amazing husband, loved by 2 fluffy puppies, a freelance writer, fine art photographer, and a lover of all things beautiful which I hope to share with you here on my blog.